It is often necessary to provide a means for transmitting electrical signals from one planar circuit, such as a printed circuit board to another circuit board or integrated circuit lead frame, multi-chip module, tape automated bonding devices or other device that utilizes electrical contacts. Various connector and contact devices have been used in the past to accomplish this. One existing method utilizes individual formed metal contacts imbedded in an insulative housing that separates each contact from adjacent contacts with each contact being directly connected to the other device or through a wire or flexible circuit board to another device. Another method utilizes individual wires inserted into a comb-like insulative housing which separates each wire from adjacent wires thus forming individual contacts out of the wire itself. Yet another method utilizes a single or multiplicity of parallel lines on a printed circuit, usually a flexible printed circuit, and uses these lines as contacts by mating them directly to a device and applying pressure via an elastomeric material and/or clamping device. However, this last method does not allow good Z axis movement of an individual contact without affecting adjacent contacts unless the insulative planar substrate material is extremely thin, between 0.001 inch and 0.003 inch thick, or each conductor must have insulative layer removed from between each conductor. The first method involves a very thin substrate and limits the use of multiple layered and controlled impedance constructions and must usually require some other means of mechanical support such as an elastomeric material behind the conductors and substrate. The second method, i.e., removing the insulative substrate material allows lateral or X or Y axis movement which can result in misalignment to the device being mated to or the shorting of adjacent conductor pads.
It is a common deficiency in many printed circuit boards that the substrate board is not completely planar, i.e., it contains "valleys" and "hills" over its surface. Thus, when a ribbon cable interconnect is employed, the variation in surface planarity of the board causes uneven contact between the traces of the board and the conductors of the cable array. This invention overcomes that deficiency.